Areas of Experience

36 Cybercrime

36 Crime, The 36 Group's criminal law team, has members with both the experience and specialist knowledge to conduct effectively trials heavily concerned with the growing phenomenon of Cybercrime.

Prosecutions in this area are increasing, exponentially. The Government has recognised Cybercrime as a Tier 1 Threat, and the latest crime statistics reflect the vast scale of previously unrecorded Cybercrimes in England and Wales. The NCA’s NCCU, and specialist CPS prosecutors, are generating many more prosecutions than ever before.

The evidence in these cases is often highly complex and technically demanding, requiring specialist counsel with both expertise and experience in the field to prosecute or defend effectively.

36 Crime are fortunate to number amongst their team Leading and Junior counsel who have been at the cutting edge in prosecuting or defending in Cybercrime trials, in recent years.

Leading members of the team have provided seminars for law enforcement personnel (including the NCCU), CPS and Defence Solicitors on Cybercrime, including one at the well-renowned Covert Policing – Annual Cybercrime Conference.

Members of 36 Crime have developed a national reputation in this field having prosecuted and defended in some of the most high profile Cybercrime cases over the last few years, including the following:

Operation Moonshine (2018): Blackfriars Crown Court. Dark web/credit card conspiracy. Dark web bitcoin transactions used to obtain details of US and Canadian credit cards, which were then used to make purchases in the UK. Click Here

Grant West – Southwark Crown Court – 2018 - “one man cybercrime wave”. West known as Courvoisier was jailed for 10 years for selling data on 1000s of customers stolen from Sainsburys, Asda, Argos, Uber & Ladbrokes on the dark web. Click Here

R v Vasan: (Croydon Crown Court - 2017) The Defendant was convicted after trial of raping and sexually exploiting an underage girl as part of a wider internet based commercial sex web-camming network. He was sentenced to a total of 19 years’ imprisonment. Click Here

R v Turner: (Cambridge Crown Court - 2017) - Instructed by ERSOU in this case which demonstrated the intersection of offending under the Computer Misuse Act, commercial criminal enterprise, and sexual offences. The Defendant was a computer hacker who used malware to infect private individuals devices (including that of a child), giving him access to their webcams, which he then covertly used to record private activity (Voyeurism); he also hacked into their files and retrieved a mass of personal photos and documents. He marketed malware packages online on a commercial basis, offering IT support for potential customers. He also refused to comply with a s.49 Notice to Disclose a Key (s.53(1) and (3) RIPA 2000, in relation to a pair of external hard drives. He was sentenced to 3 years – 10 months of which was for the RIPA offence. Click Here

R v Street: (Chelmsford Crown Court, 2016) - Instructed by ERSOU in this case where the defendant pleaded guilty to selling DDoS facilities to others on a commercial basis, and to using the notorious Blackshades software to harvest passwords and user details for the purpose of fraud – a (£9k confiscation order made at sentence). FBI and NCA involvement. Click Here

R v Floate - Birmingham Crown Court, 2015, cyber attacks on the FBI and the Home Office; evidence included material from the FBI. Click Here

R v Ackroyd and Others - Southwark Crown Court - 2013 – case involved an infamous international group of Hacktivists Lulzsec/Anonymous hacking into and DDoS attacks on multiple sites including the CIA, Sony and News International, allegedly causing over $30 million of damage; there was a participating informant in the US and evidence included substantial material from the FBI.